This invention relates generally to electrical connectors and more particular to very high density electrical connectors adapted for use with printed circuit boards.
As is known in the art, electrical connectors of the type used with printed circuit boards are becoming smaller and are required to operate with data signals having extremely short edge rise times. Further, such connectors must be mechanically robust and configured to enable relatively low manufacturing cost.
In accordance with one feature of the invention, an electrical connector is provided having a plurality of electrical conductors with portions thereof disposed in a housing and ends thereof terminating in pads oriented perpendicular to the housing disposed portions of the conductors.
In a preferred embodiment, solder balls are disposed on the pads to facilitate mounting to a printed circuit board.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the pad is coupled to the conductor through a curved interconnect. The interconnect is configured as an inductor to provide a series resonant circuit element for capacitance provided by the pad and attachment to the printed circuit board.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, an electrical connector is provided having a housing adapted to have therein a plurality of wafer-like modules. Each one of the modules has a dielectric support and an array of signal electrical conductors electrically insulated one from another by portions of the support. A ground plane electrical conductor is provided. The ground plane conductor is disposed under, and is separated from, portions of the signal electrical conductor by the dielectric member. The signal conductor, ground plane conductor, and portion of the dielectric support member therebetween are configured as a microstrip transmission line having a predetermined impedance.
With such an arrangement, the microstrip transmission line extends along a length of the connector in a region between an overlaying pair of printed circuit boards. Thus, the microstrip transmission line in the connector appears the same as, i.e., is matched to, the transmission line in the printed circuit board. Therefore, once the connector is designed, the length of the microstrip transmission line can be readily extended to similar connectors having different lengths to accommodated different height separation requirements between the overlying printed circuit boards.